U.S. Giving $5M for Afghan Health Care

Published 2:49 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

The government is providing $5 million to rebuild a hospital in Afghanistan's capital and create four teaching clinics elsewhere in the country for maternal and child health care, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said.

"This funding is a critical step in delivering on our promise to improve health care in Afghanistan," Thompson said.

Since November 2001, HHS officials have looked at health care and helped in immunization campaigns in Afghanistan.

Forty percent of deaths among women of childbearing age in Afghanistan are caused by preventable complications related to childbirth, the department said. About one in four children dies before reaching the age of 5.

The government's initiative involves improving the Rabia Balkhi Women's Hospital in Kabul, which admits close to 36,000 patients a year and delivers about 40 babies a day.

The teaching clinics will prepare doctors, nurses and midwives to perform birth and child-care procedures.

Nearly $3 million of the money for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 will be used for equipment, drugs, supplies and teaching materials; improving lab capabilities; paying staff and training Afghan health care workers. The remaining $2 million will be used to staff and equip four satellite clinics throughout Afghanistan.

The Defense Department and the Agency for International Development are helping HHS to establish the maternal and child-health teaching clinics.

HHS and the Afghan Health Ministry have agreed to develop a program at Rabia Balkhi Hospital to train doctors, nurses, midwives, physician assistants and technicians. After training, the health care workers will go to remote areas of Afghanistan to train local health care staffs.